You Can Sell Me the Future, but Be Credible…

Some folks I know prefer to skip any discussion or a meeting with any sales people, and some folks have no issue at all. I am among the ones that like them all, as long as they are credible. A typical sales guy will try his or her best to close the deal, and sometime by promising things that are not yet there or not yet ready. This is fine. As long as you get the expectation of when it will be available, how you are going to use it, and if it works for you, than go for it. As long as the discussion covers the sales person product we are all set.

The one thing I don’t appreciate is not being credible, and not being credible means comparing your product performance with your competitor product, and not giving the real picture. The right way to do it is by making sure you have the best performance numbers your competitor can demonstrate, and only than you can perform a credible comparison. And the best way to ensure that is by using performance numbers that your competitor has already published.

If you are planning to do your own testing with your competitor product, make sure the results are the best that can be achieved, so make sure to have the best setting for your competitor product and compare your testing it to what your competitor has already published (if exist). Only than you can do a credible comparison. If you can’t do it, don’t compare at all.

The worse thing a sales person can do is to lose credibility by doing fake comparisons. Once I see that, the only thing that sales person will see is my door… and a “Real or Not Real” blog post…